


playing games (with my memories)

by klaviergavout



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Established Relationship, Multi, Polyamory, everyone's together except michael and christine cause michael's gay, hurt/comfort sorta? but mainly just fluff, some mentions of jake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 13:39:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11556330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/klaviergavout/pseuds/klaviergavout
Summary: Rich loves arcades, and always has.





	playing games (with my memories)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cirkne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cirkne/gifts).



Rich loves arcades, and always has. True, he never had the skill or attention span to play for hours on end- but he always loved stepping through those huge double doors as a kid and entering a world full of vibrant lights and machines, a world that could make him forget he was just a kid in a room full of games in New Jersey. His money would be gone in mere minutes- since he rarely won- but he didn’t care. He just came back the next day to feel the rush all over again.

As he grew older, he naturally grew out of that rush, and visited less and less until he met Jake. Jake Dillinger, for all his popularity and thoroughly cool nature,  _ loved  _ the arcade perhaps even more so than anyone- and Rich was thrilled, of course, since it was one less interest that his squip had to force feed him in order to have more things in common. They’d save up their money and spend hours there together, sometimes skipping school to do so, racking up tickets and buying cheap prizes. It was never about the prizes, though, not for them; even though Jake never seemed to lose anything in comparison, Rich has to admit that his best memories were carved there with his friend in that arcade, laughing at the  **GAME OVER’** s and  **TOO BAD** ’s.   
  
It’s been months since he’s last visited the arcade, since the fire, since the last time he heard the squip, and he’s with his partners by those double doors, and he’s nervous. He steps into a world that seems light years away from New Jersey and tries hard not to think about Jake. He feels Christine’s hand slip into his as if she just  _knows_ , with Michael’s hand soon following. He focuses on the warmth of their hands and pretends nothing else exists for a while.   
  
The longer the afternoon goes on, the more he notices.   
  
He notices how Michael sticks his tongue out when he’s deep in concentration, how he _ definitely wasn’t kidding  _ when he said he loves Pac-Man more than anyone else, how the initials GAY still stand at first place and yet nobody knows they should really say MXM. Rich tells him how cute he looked while he was kicking colourful ghost ass, and Michael doesn’t stop grinning for a solid half hour.   
  
He notices how wide Jeremy smiles when he’s cruising through level after level of Tetris, how he grips the joystick with long, curved fingers and a confident air, how he writes down his personal best every time he beats himself in hopes of one day reaching the leaderboard. Rich tells him that he’s the best Tetris player he’s ever seen, and Jeremy kisses him quick before slipping in another quarter.   
  
He notices how Christine laughs and sighs as she dances to DDR, how she slams down on the arrow pads harder than she probably should in her excitement, how fast she jumps and hops even though her hands hardly ever leave the bar behind her, even though she rarely makes it past the second level. Rich tells her how great it is to be able to see how happy she gets playing her favourite game (even though she rarely plays any at all), and she hugs him tight before challenging him to a round.   
  
When he finally settles down to play some games of his own he heads straight to the back where the shooters are- the Time Crisis series, The House of the Dead, Operation G.H.O.S.T, Project X-Pher and Aliens: Armageddon, all lined up in a pretty little row of pretty badass machines. He’s played every game of the lot- despite never fully beating any- but he  _ loves  _ Time Crisis 2, with its awesome pedals and terrible animation. After a moment’s hesitation to look back at the other machines, he takes a clunky gun in hand and settles into position in front of the screen. Realisation hits him; he doesn’t have a P2 anymore. Not  _ his  _ P2.    
  
It’s the sort of rush he doesn’t like, and it’s making him nervous. His hands shake as he steadies the gun.  
  
The game begins, and he hasn’t even paid. A quick look to his right and Christine is waving and cheering, Jeremy is giving him a big thumbs up, Michael’s there beside him with a clunky gun in hand, and it all just clicks into place. The two of them slay their way through stage after stage without breathing a word, gunning down every badly animated agent in sight, pulling triggers and slamming on the pedals like mad, until the words  **STAGE 3 CLEARED** come onto the screen and the two of them are almost knocked to the floor by the force of two very proud lovers.  
  
Rich loves arcades, and always has. True, he doesn’t have the skill or attention span to play for hours on end, but when he’s with the people he loves it doesn’t matter. When he’s with the people he loves he doesn’t care that he’s just a kid in a room full of games in New Jersey- because those people are, and always will be,  _ his  _ world.   
  
  



End file.
